On Oct 2, 2012, at 6:05 PM, Elliott Sprehn <esprehn@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 6:01 PM, Glenn Maynard <glenn@zewt.org> wrote:
>>> On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 4:58 PM, Elliott Sprehn <esprehn@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> What of the fact that this breaks existing pages with <input
>>>> id="Path"> that access it as just Path? Historically this has been a
>>>> non-starter for new APIs.
>>
>>
>> Surely it's not a non-starter in general, or else no new APIs could ever be
>> added to the platform--at worst it just means picking a less generic name.
>> I assume that's not strictly needed; "URL" must be a more common ID than
>> "Path". ("Path" makes me think of URL paths, though. Something like
>> "DrawPath" would be a little clearer.)
>
> What about unifying all of these as:
>
> new GraphicsPath()
> new GraphicsLinearGradient()
> new GraphicsRadialGradient()
> new GraphicsPattern()
>
> and fixing HTML5 canvas to support these new constructors instead?
>
> I'm a little surprised about the window.URL change that went through
> recently. There must be tons of <input id="URL">'s around, and lots of
> old form generating code accessed them through window.id.
>
> @hixie: How was it decided that this wasn't going to break the web?
Mozilla has a massive platform for collecting and analyzing user/software feedback. I'd imagine they've got good metrics on web-breaking moves. Chrome, from my experience, relies on bug reports on their issues site; Microsoft and Apple go slow and keep things opaque/in-house. WHATWG watches, suggests and makes changes based on the eventual consensus.
As for html5 Canvas; other than the accessibility issues addressed in the past two years, I wouldn't say it's broken. We're now looking at a new version of it. I think it was called version 5 by Hixie.
I wanted vendors to solidify consensus on a version close to what currently exists, with minor changes for accessibility. The WHATWG and W3C have chosen instead to make broad changes, as proposed in version 5/the Hixie-Atkins draft.
So, it's on the table. As always, browser vendors will decide on the actual direction.
I'm still for making a snapshot with createPath and an opaque CanvasPath, and saving version 5 for the more distant 3-year future and HTML6. The W3C and WHATWG have gone ahead with version 5, with support from an Apple employee.
-Charles